The Unique Sound Of Ed Askew

Up until recently, the nameEd Askew was known to very few people.
Truth is, even for the hard working obscure music finders, his name wasn’t known. A classic case of a history missing a true authentic and absolutely amazing singer-songwriter.
True, Askew wasn’t hard to miss, as he released his first album Ask The Unicorn in a very niche oriented label, though a legendary temple for obscured music – ESP Disk Records. The label mainly focused on free jazz, acid-whatever and that area of music.
The label gave this album almost no push, though to financial problems and the record quickly vanished and no one have heard of him for years. Before disappearing, Ed Askew had recorded another album for the label, titled Little Eyes, but it was never released.More info about Ed Askew, can be found in this fantastic blogpost.

Years have passed, and the absolutely incredible label De Stijl, which I totally recommend the readers of this blog to take a notice of their releases, had re-discovered Ed’s music to the public by releasing Little Eyes on a limited version LP and CD.
That’s when I’ve heard of Ed, and around that time I discovered the ESP Disk had released his debut on CD. So I went and bought these two albums.

What happened to Ed Askew? – Ed explains
Ed Askew’s music in these two albums is basically him with a 10 strings guitar. His strange voice makes the listening experience much more interesting, demanding and requires much more attention from the listener. This is great, I love challenges.
His melodies are unique though tremendously catchy and beautiful. In Little Eyes we hear some harmonica that he plays, but that’s it- everything is kept very simple.
But still, he has a very unique songwriting and his strange voice and beautiful lyrics, makes him a true lost treasure.

Now, De Stijl is releasing a 7” with two songs of Ed’s, recorded in David Porter’s radio show on WYBC in November 1969.
These two songs, Here We Are TogetherAgain and Yellow Dollars are another brilliant addition to your collection of Ed’s music. Two beautiful songs that can make the world stop turning, if it had ears and a good will power.
Ed Askew continued to write songs and record them, see the Ed Askew Bandcamp page